Baghdad blast kills 57! Bodies of missing couple found! Murder-suicide on Long Island! Where would the news media be without their daily dose of death and destruction?

If there’s any one cause-and-effect for the overall malaise affecting the average American, it has to be the mainstream press, especially broadcast television. These newsreaders (and, most are just that, newsreaders, not journalists) sit in front of the camera day after bleeding day (pun intended) and pass along one horrific tale of woe and misery after another.

I’ve certainly heard the old bromide, ‘If it bleeds, it leads,’ but c’mon, newscasts are starting to give horror movies a run for their money. It seems like each story is more horrendous than the one before.

Sadly, bad news attracts viewers who, in turn, attract advertisers. And, advertisers pay the networks that feed us the dismal facts and figures. And so on and so forth, with no end in sight.

So, who’s really to blame? Advertisers? The media? The bad people who perpetrate the crimes and start the wars? Society in general? You and me for watching this trash every night?

When the Beatles sang, "It’s just another day," they were bemoaning the drab, dreary existence that many of us lead. Compared to the mayhem, murder and mischief being beamed to us 24×7 every day by the Charlies, Katies, Brians, Soledads and their ilk, however, a little drabness doesn’t look too shabby right about now.